7 Tactics for Optimizing YouTube Videos for Search, Part 2

In the second and final part of this series on how businesses can integrate video into their marketing mixes, specifically, how video can be best used to optimize rankings with search engines, I wrap up my list of seven tactics for optimizing YouTube videos for search with tips four through seven. For part 1, and strategies one through three, click here.

4. Check out related videos, and see who's linked your way. You can benefit from your competitors’ videos by using the "Statistics & Data" feature to view their incoming links. Provided the links are from medium- or high-authority sites, it may be worth your time to contact these sites and tell them about your new videos. Point out what makes your product or service different from your competitors'.

These efforts eventually may result in high-authority sites linking to your videos or company website. You also can check out comments made under you competitors’ videos, visit the commentators’ respective websites and contact the ones you deem appropriate. A great way to get high-authority sites to link to your videos is by writing guest posts for them.

5. Promote your videos on YouTube. When you comment on other people's videos, especially related videos, include a link to your videos. Say the video you commented on was about planting and growing lilies, for example, and your video is about growing tulips. Write something like this: “Want to learn how to plant and grow tulips? Check out (URL).”

Extra traffic generated by these links can help your search engine rankings. And commenting on others’ videos increases the likelihood that they'll comment on your videos. Once you start promoting your videos, check YouTube Insight, a free tool that enables anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics about the videos that he or she uploads to the site. This allows you to see how your traffic has evolved. Insight also shows where your viewers are from and how they found your videos.

6. Upload short, high-quality videos. Obviously you want those watching your videos to enjoy them. That way they’ll give you good ratings, tell their friends about you and possibly even go on to purchase one of your products. If your videos are long, viewers may lose interest after a couple of minutes. Or, they may never watch your videos in the first place because they think they're too long.

Limit your videos to one minute to two minutes if possible. Also, make sure you use a decent camera that produces high-quality video. A blurry video isn't fun to watch. And once you’ve made your video, choose a high-resolution thumbnail image to represent it in search results.

7. Make sure your videos are accessible to everyone. In YouTube settings, there are options to make your videos private, not allowing comments or video responses. There are also options to keep people from voting on comments, rating your videos and embedding your videos on their websites. Make sure these options aren't enabled.

The more access you give viewers, the more potential your video has for becoming popular. Also in settings, choose the appropriate category preferences for your videos. This makes them easier to find.

There are also a few steps you can take to channel YouTube users to either your company website or product landing pages. They include the following:

* adding an annotation to your videos showing your website’s URL;
* putting your website’s URL on the last slide of your videos; and
* including your URL in your YouTube profile.

You also can boost your website traffic by uploading your videos to other video sites, including Dailymotion, Yahoo Video and Vimeo, and by linking from the videos to your website.

Larry Kim is founder and vice president of products for WordStream, a Boston-based provider of keyword management tools for pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization. Follow him on Twitter or subscribe to the WordStream Internet Marketing Blog.